Of Inauguration Day: A new dawn for Zimbabwe?

Emmerson Mnangagwa gets sworn in as the third president of Zimbabwe… Yes 3rd president but history seems to have selective amnesia in 1980 we had Canaan Sodindo Banana as president and Robert Mugabe was Prime Minister (its said the presidential position was mainly ceremonial but still so yeah maybe he has in power for 37 years) in 1987 Robert Mugabe became president and the prime minister position somehow got absorbed into the presidential realm while we still celebrating our independence no one noticed but this is how he wound up with the unlimited authority that has led us down the path we are now on….

What short memory history has and that is why it is bound to repeat itself ….. if I have learnt anything from history, its that no one ever learns anything from the lessons history has to teach… doomed to watching it repeat itself.

History Repeats Itself

Enter: our new president for a hopefully new Zimbabwe. His signature is quite the intricate affair…

Is he drawing a crocodile as he is “affectionately” known. I am yet to mean a benign crocodile, what sharp teeth they have, this man who in some circles is known as The Butcher of Esgodini…….

Can a crocodile change its scales? I pray it can.

Only a few short weeks Emmerson Mnangagwa was Vice-President of Zimbabwe he has probably been responsible for some the policies that have seen us get to where we today, until he got fired from the ruling party and the government for disloyalty and other things and then the president resigned in a coup that was not a coup, and just like that Emmerson gets sworn in as president. People are busy celebrating the fall of one tyrant might have simply replaced the face of tyranny, old wine in new bottles and does anyone really care how exactly he got reinstated, well he is president now the bed has been made, we lay in it…. Cant help feel certain liberties have been taken with constitution…. But what do I know I am not a lawyer.

Still we have a chance at something of a fresh start, a tiny step, but still a step. I did not attend the inauguration not because I did not want but because I could not find the transport money, we still have a cash crisis going on here, I horde my precious coins as would a miser spending grudgingly always wondering what will I do tomorrow….

I didn’t watch the inauguration on TV because we had no electricity for the whole day, I don’t know if it is just my neighbourhood but we seem to experiencing a whole lot of power cuts again should I be worried?….

I would have posted this article on Friday but first all we had no electricity and then I ran out of internet data, the price of the internet is prohibitive and I just got a message from my provider that as from 1 December prices are going up….

Has anything changed and is it for the better? Well today the army did issue out a statement that normalcy has returned to the streets of Harare that the police are now resuming their regular duties although there will be soldiers will accompany them in a move that seems downright like babysitting them….. Interesting times

Elections are still going on as scheduled eight months from now and I still haven’t found a candidate to vote for….. I had lost hope in the electoral process, but for now the hope has been rekindled…..

How do I feel, lets put it on the record as cautious optimism…..oh wait the new cabinet has not yet been announced maybe when they do we will have better insight into what we have in store……

~B

PS Emmerson Mnangagwa is president now much as its been cute watching international journalist stumble over his name

I still hope everything turns out for the best…but I’m a little uncomfortable with anyone who’s called “The Butcher” running a nation. Do you know how President Mnangagwa earned the title of the Butcher of Esgodini?

Also, since elections are being held in 8 months, is he just a temporary president?

hi Josh
hahaha I was this close to sending an open letter to media houses….. like seriously if you going to do an all day feature/breaking news bulletin at least try to say the name proper not just mumble it real quick and hope no one notices……..

initially there was talk of forming an interim government bringing together a coalition of key political parties, but some clause in the constitution about if a president resigns, vice president becomes president conveniently swept him back into power(but i thought he was fired??? well somehow got reinstated lol)
Anyway he hasnt announced his cabinet of ministers as yet maybe he will pick a wide range of capable individuals or surround himself with powerful allies and then his intentions will be more discernible ……
for now he is simply interim president until the elections
~B
As for the title that is from when he was rumoured to be behind a brigade that is credited with near genocide atrocities on the people of Matebeleland known as Gukurahundi, in the 1980s that is a bleak moment in our history, there was a time when talking about it was near treason under the presidency of Robert Mugabe, infact just a severak weeks backbefore all this someone got arrested for a tweet on twitter that was said to undermine the authority of the president and subvert a constitutionally elected government facing a possible 20 years in jail….. not sure what happens to the case now….
I am still yet to decide if our new found freedom of speech is real ha!
~B

Can you believe the former president started a whole ministry of cyber security threat detection and threat detection(mainly to clamp down on social media than anything else)….
I wonder what happens to it now or what its new mandate will be……
~B

PS Hahahaha ask away, (I can answer with due tact) besides one day who knows in the future someone will read this blog as historical evidence to see what life was like back in these days as they do diaries left by pilgrims on voyages across the world……..
~B

Wow…was Mugabe that worried about what people were saying about him? I remember a while back that there was a priest who got into trouble for carrying a Zimbabwe flag, or something like that. Unfortunately I can’t remember many of the details.

Also, is your internet service provided by the government or private companies?

You and your fellow countrymen and women are in my thoughts. I can understand the caution and the optimism. Hopefully the recharged energy among the people will be its own force (and keep the lights on too).

Thank you…
hahaha what keeps the lights on is sustainable economic practises…. this had become a rather hostile country to trade in from the bureaucratic red tape to the corrupt senior government officials simply out to line their pockets with impunity……
A few have been arrested and scandalous amounts of money were clandestinely squandered….. and before all this you could not say this out loud as they were untouchable, you would get spirited away in the middle of the night……
maybe now some form of progress can start.
~B